Michael Bader
© Felix Petermann, Max Delbrück Center
Science / October 30, 2025

The multiple roles of serotonin: A podcast with Michael Bader

The neurotransmitter serotonin is not only responsible for the feeling of happiness in the brain, it is also present in the body. In the podcast “Forschungsquartett” (Research Quartet), a collaboration between detektor.fm and our center, Michael Bader reports on what happens when our bodies have too little – or too much – of it.

Serotonin is known as the “happiness hormone.” However, this neurotransmitter is not actually a hormone and is capable of much more than just influencing our feelings of happiness. It has an effect on the brain, but also on organs and cells.

Michael Bader was involved in revealing these two sides of serotonin more than 20 years ago and has been researching what this means for medicine ever since — for example, when it comes to serious diseases such as pulmonary hypertension, for which there has been no treatment option to date.

In this interview with detektor.fm editor Johannes Schmidt for the “Forschungsquartett” program, Michael Bader talks about what science knows about serotonin today and what happens when our body has too little — or too much — of it.

Listen to the podcast on detektor.fm (German only)

Related news & events

Scientific image
© Ioannis Anagnostopoulos, Universität Würzburg, Institut für Pathologie
Science

Captain T Cell closed multi-million-euro round

Captain T Cell, a biotechnology spin-off from the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin, recently closed an equity financing round with both new and existing investors. It provides Captain T Cell with a total budget of EUR 20 million to develop next-generation T cell therapies for solid tumors.
MRT
© David Ausserhofer, Max Delbrück Center
Science

Lifestyle linked to body fat composition

Using data from the German NAKO health study, an international team led by Tobias Pischon has found that a healthy lifestyle – regular exercise, a balanced diet, alcohol in moderation and not smoking – is linked to the accumulation of less visceral body fat. The results are reported in “Obesity.”
Klaas Ypermann & Gary Lewin
© Felix Petermann, Max Delbrück Center
Science

From bench to business

What does it take to turn Max Delbrück Center research into a startup? Meet Klaas Yperman, our very first Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Yperman has won a Helmholtz Enterprise grant to develop a roadmap for turning compounds discovered in the Lewin lab into a drug to treat neuropathic pain.
People on stage

SPARK – creative processes in the arts and sciences: SooJin Anjou and Cicely Parnas presented a world premiere: Wolfgang Köhler’s Jazz Sonata for cello and piano (2022).

© Pablo Castagnola, Max Delbrück Center
Science

Berlin Science Week 2025 in pictures

About one thousand science enthusiasts took part in Max Delbrück Center events during Berlin Science Week 2025. Visitors learned that sharks do indeed feel pain, experienced single-cell research first hand, enjoyed a concert and exhibitions. Scroll through our photo gallery below for a few highlights.